The tables are turned: Someone interviewed me!

It’s a Mann’s blog with multimedia journalist Karen Mann from Wayne Sutton on Vimeo.

Thanks so much to Wayne Sutton, the brains behind the blog Local Conversations, for interviewing me! He's a cool guy with a great blog, and really challenged me to think about what I'm doing with this thing. He's especially challenging to make good on my vague idea to have a rock show at a local club in honor of this blog's 5th anniversary. I'm going to look into it and will let everyone know when it finally happens.

New Megafaun .. same as the old Megafaun

OK, count this as a classic Karen Mann brain fart: I was somehow under the impression that Megafaun's new CD was, uh, new. Turns out it's a re-release of their self-released CD from last year. Brad Cook from Megafaun says: "actually....the guy at Table of the Elements wanted to release that one as is.....so no new recording. We are working on a follow up as we speak....." Now, the reason why I didn't do anything with this CD when Grayson first gave it to me was that, until I heard them live, Megafaun really didn't do much for me. But seeing them live left me amazed. I can now appreciate the beauty of this CD, but if you haven't seen them live, you really haven't heard them at their best. 

Two-day rock show in Carrboro this weekend

Just got this from Ron Liberti on Myspace:

Nick and I are having a two day party this weekend at track and field
in carrboro this weekend.
it is a celebration of our displacement due to a rent hike.
music and art , friday and saturday night, free, 8pm.
friday.
bringerer
blag'ard
hazarai
caltrop
transportation

saturday
bastard sword
monsonia
curtains of night
in the year of the pig
black taj

Weekend catch-up

OK, sorry for the short post, but I'm playing catch-up from the weekend. Joe Swank & the Zen Pirates (above), and The Cartridge Family, both put on good shows Saturday night at Slim's. The highlight of the evening was when Cartridge Family's Greg Rice sat in with Joe Swank for a few songs. The first two videos are from that pairing. First is a cover of Lynn Blakey's “Slip So Easily (The Beauty of 23)” and the second is “I Killed All My Friends Last Night” by Dave Schultz. The third video is Cartridge Family's "So Much". See more photos here.

The Cartridge Family from Mann's World on Vimeo.

Joe Swank from Mann's World on Vimeo.

Chapel Hill Schoolkids to close

The Indy has the story:

http://www.indyweek.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A188182

New music from The Strugglers

Thanks to Randy Bickford for letting me hear an advance of the upcoming Strugglers CD, "Latest Rights," which is scheduled to be released on April 15. I've only given it a short listen, but from what I can tell it's a bit darker -- and a little poppier -- than his last album, but his distinctive mellow voice remains the same. 

Polvo will play around here after all!

David Menconi has the details on his blog.

Check out new Chatham County Line!

Chatham County Line will release their fourth CD, appropriately titled "IV", on March 4, but you can check it out in advance!

Stream the album

Download "Birmingham Jail"

If you like what you hear, check them out March 7 at Cat's Cradle and March 8 at Lincoln Theatre. After that, they're headed to SXSW.

New Birds of Avalon

photo by Justin Lyons Stereogum had a download of a brand new BOA track, plus info on upcoming dates, the closest of which is Charlotte on March 8. Check it out.

Video from The Bleeding Hearts

Last night The Bleeding Hearts played their CD, "Stayin' After Class," plus a few new songs, straight through at Slim's. I'm looking forward to their next one. Here's video of "Pretty Enough." Check out the accidental mood lighting in the middle of the song.

Bleeding Hearts from Mann's World on Vimeo.

Get ready for Troika Festival, 2008

Want to be part of Troika Fest this year? The organizers will begin accepting submissions starting March 15. Go to their Web site for more details.

An update (and downloads!) from A Rooster for the Masses

Here's what they just sent out:

How have you been? We have been under the radar and staying low key
while we work on new songs and work in a new line up. We have booked
a few shows coming up in March and April. The first show will be at
the Pourhouse on 03.28.08. We will be playing with Love Language
and Citified.

To promote the show we are offering free downloads
of some of the new songs on Reverbnation. No strings attached...
just download them and spread the love to your friends.

We also will be appearing live on WKNC 88.1FM to debut some new songs
and for an interview with our main man Big Fat Sac on 02.25.08 around 5-7pm.

Check out our Reverbnation page as we will be updating it with more shows
and songs.

Transmission over
Hank


-A Rooster for the Masses
http://www.reverbnation.com/aroosterforthemasses

Suburban Sweethearts on WKNC

Erik Sugg just passed this along:

You can hear our songs "Found Another Reason" and "Baby Bender", as well as an interview with the band courtesy of Miss Kelly...

http://www.fuelinjectedrock.com/ss/SuburbanSweetheartsKNC.mp3

Videos of The Poon Hounds and Suburban Sweethearts

Last night we headed down to The Pour House to see The Ghost of Saturday Night, Ethan Smith's latest band. Unfortunately we got there right as they were loading out, but we did get to see The Poon Hounds, with local soundman extraordinare Jac Cain and Elvisfest founder Dave Quick. They more than made up for missing GOSN with their straight-up rock 'n' roll. The video is a little jumpy because, I swear, the iron railing at the Pour House balcony was vibrating along with the music.

The Poon Hounds from Mann's World on Vimeo.

During the show the guitar player asked the sparse audience if everyone had gone to see WASP, who were at Lincoln Theatre last night. Actually I think everyone was next door at Tir na nOg to see Suburban Sweethearts and Goner. Here's a picture of Lucius from SS (below), which turned out pretty good. It's hard to believe that Suburban Sweethearts were only playing their second show!

Suburban Sweethearts from Mann's World on Vimeo.

Check out the Raleigh Blogs Town Hall meetup

Several local bloggers will be part of an online meet-up tomorrow courtesy of NBC 17. The meet-up will be stream live during lunch and will feature the following bloggers:

Green Habits for Raleigh - http://greenerhabitsforraleigh.blogspot.com/
Raleigh Connoisseur - http://www.dtraleigh.com
Good Night Raleigh - http://www.goodnightraleigh.com
North Hills Buzz - http://www.northhillsbuzz.com
New Raleigh Blog - http://www.newraleigh.com
Ginny from the Blog - http://blogs.wncn.info/gskalski
Raleigh Native Review - http://blogs.wncn.info/dsutton/


Wayne Sutton, NBC17 Community Content Manager and Local Conversations blogger, will be one of the facilitators.

Here is the agenda, according to Wayne:
Intros
Some general Q&A about Raleigh, blogging, why blog about Raleigh,
direction of blogging, news/idea resources
everyone can ask each other questions. (Open discussion)
Closing

If you're interested in new media or Raleigh blogs at all, I suggest you check this out!

Longbranch needs cash

Thanks to Monty for forwarding this to me

Straight Up With a Twist: Bar Appeals to Patrons for Loans

Two blast-from-the-past videos

Thanks to Jessica for passing this along. Local blog rduwtf.com has links to two N.C. music documentaries from days gone by. One is a Fox News report on the 1990s Chapel Hill scene. The other is the 1984 documentary on local punk. Both feature a lot of people you probably know.

WXDU Zombie Dance Party

This is a repost. Thanks to Kelly for passing it along:

WXDU invites you and a guest to a special advanced screening of George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead. The film is playing at Durham's Carolina Theatre with this special sneak preview on Thursday, February 14. Passes will be available at Bull City Records, Chapel Hill Comics and at a WXDU table outside the theater the evening of the movie. Immediately preceding the film, there will be a Zombie Costume Contest. Also that night, starting at 9:30, WXDU will host the "Eat Our Hearts Out Zombie Dance Party" at Bull McCabe's. All are welcome at the party regardless of movie attendance. If you have any questions, please email Kelly Davis – promotions@wxdu.org.

Romero established the Zombie-Horror sub-genre with his 1968 classic Night of the Living Dead. His signature style originally was combining social commentary in the horror context to provide thought provoking entertainment. In interviews about his newest film, he has emphasized a desire to return to his roots and eschew the empty gore that has become more standard in the genre. Diary of the Dead utilizes the camera style similar to The Blair Witch Project and more recently Cloverfield. Romero has stated that he chose the style as a comment on the immediacy of video on the internet as "fact."

Passes are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Please arrive at the theatre early on the 14th. The film's distributors are intentionally overbooking to insure capacity and non-admittance is not the responsibility of the theatre or WXDU. No one will be admitted once the film begins.

Raleigh Times Beer blog

Ok, this isn't about music, but it is about drinking, which in Raleigh is pretty closely related. And it's about one of my favorite bars (Raleigh Times) and partially written by one of my favorite people (Jay Winfrey). Check it out. Even if you never go to Raleigh Times, you'll still learn a bit about good beer.

Videos from The T's and The Lonely H

Not much to say about this. If you were at The T's CD-release party last night at Slim's, you know it rocked, it was packed, and they put on a great show. Lonely H were awesome too, though I really miss the second guitarist they had with them last summer. Some of their songs are just screaming out for twin leads. I included the Lonely H photo above because my T's photos sucked. But the videos turned out OK.

The T's from Mann's World on Vimeo.

The T's -- "Goin' Nowhere"

The Lonely H from Mann's World on Vimeo.

The Lonely H -- "Just Don't Know"

The T's CD-release party tonight!

Photo by Raymond Goodman OK, I know I've fallen down on the job -- and on the show I've been most looking forward to all year. I've been out of town with limited Internet access. Anyway. The T's are having their CD-release party tonight at Slim's, and you should go. You should go and buy their CD because it's really good (full, thought-out review to come later), and does an impressive job of capturing their live energy. Also on this bill are The Lonely H, the young (under-21) classic rock group from Port Angeles, Washington, who are musically wise beyond their years. I have .mp3s from both bands, but no server access from the beach. When I return this evening, I'll post them for you to check out. UPDATE: Here's music by The T's ("Goin' Nowhere" -- my favorite song on the CD) and The Lonely H ("For Barbara").